Shaktimaan Remains An Election Issue In Uttarakhand

K Ramachandra Murthy

Mussoorie: 'He promised to build Shaktimaan Chowk but did not start the work. He makes promises and does not fulfil them', said Koshiyal, a teacher working in a municipal school. He was referring to Chief Minister Harish Rawat who took Shaktimaan's death very seriously and declared that he would get a chowk built in memory of the police horse.

Local BJP MLA Ganesh Joshi was involved in a controversy that was all over the media in the country. Ganesh Joshi was heading a BJP procession and used a big pole to get the police horse named 'Shaktimaan' out of the way. In the ensuing melee, a foot of the horse got caught between two iron rods. It got very badly injured while trying to wriggle out. The foot had to be cut off. It led to a major controversy. Local Congress leaders raised hue and cry over the incident. Harish Rawat got doctors from the US to treat the horse. But Shaktimaan had succumbed to the injuries. A case was filed against Ganesh Joshi for cruelty against animals. Ganesh was arrested on the morning of March 18, 2016 and nine rebel Congress MLAs voted against their own government on the afternoon of the same day. It was in the course of exchange of angry charges that Harish Rawat promised to build a memorial for Shaktimaan in the shape of a chowk. With that incident Ganesh Joshi got established as a strong BJP leader who stood up to the chief minister. When I asked Harish Rawat on Wednesday about Shaktimaan Chowk, he said he would get it built as soon as possible.

Mussoorie is a city that was built by Britishers for Britishers. It was developed by a surveyor and geologist George Everest in 1803. He lived in Mussoorie for 11 years. Mussoorie is a synonym of Mansoorie which is the name of a herb which is locally available in plenty. After the conquest of Garhwal and Dehra by Gurkhas under Umer Singh Thapa the place was named Mussoorie.

Caste is very important in UP politics. Not so much in Uttarakhand. In Mussoorie your caste does not matter.

Ganesh is fighting against Godavari Thapli, the Congress candidate. Joshi is from Rajpur. He was elected to Uttarakhand Assembly from Rajpur in 2007 and from Mussoorie in 2012. Godavari Thapli is contesting in Assembly elections for the first time. She is also an outsider. She is from Gurkha community which has more than 20,000 voters. Godavari happens to be the first woman to contest from this constituency. Her husband, a senior Congress leader, is a Garhwali.

Joshi has a good name as a fighter. He brought a lot of development projects and the Congress government was willing to fund. In fact, Ganesh Joshi has been taking the credit for the development schemes that were sanctioned and executed by the Congress government. He has been constantly persuading. The road was widened near the Gandhi Chowk. Shahid Sthal was renovated. Khulna Garh market was demolished to construct a multi- storied and Multi- purpose facility. Ropeway to Gun Hill is planned with a layout of RS 150 crores.

The main source of income to Mussoorie Municipal Corporation is tourism. The voting in Uttarakhand was over on Wednesday. The results are expected on March 11. Joshi is a favourite.

I wanted to meet Ruskin Bond, famous writer in children literature, who lives here. He does not usually meet visitors. It was Tuesday evening and it was time for him to sleep. In any case, he is averse to meeting journalists. He spends an hour every Saturday signing autographs at Cambridge Book Depot on the Mall Road. Arora, the owner of the book depot promised to help but could not convince the author.